MR. DAYTON'S ADDRESS 



PEINCETON, 18i3. 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE TUB 



AMERICAN WHIG AND CLIOSOPHIC SOCIETIES 



COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 



SEPTEMBER 26, 1843. 



By Hon. WILLIAM L. DAYTON, 

OF KEW JERSET. 



PRINTED BY JOHN T. ROBINSON 
1843. 



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JAN 21 1921 i 



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Extract from the Minutes of the Cliosophic Society, at the Annual Meeting, 
September 27th, 1843. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to 
the Hon. William L. Dayton, for the able and eloquent ad- 
dress delivered by him yesterday; and that a committee be 
appointed to request a copy for publication. 

Prof. JOHN MACLEAN, 

WILLIAM A. DOD, } Committee. 

THEO. LEDYARD CUYLER, 



J 



Extract from the Minutes of the American Whig Society. 

Whig Hall, Sept. 27th, 1843. 
Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to convey to the 
Hon. William L. Dayton, the respectful acknowledgments 
of this Society for the very able and eloquent address delivered 
by him on the 26th inst., and to request a copy for publication. 
SAM. D. ALEXANDER, ) 
J. POTTER STOCKTON, C Committee. 
H. C. CHAMBERS, S 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the American Whig 

AND ClIOSOPHIC SOCIETIES 

It seems but as yesterday, that a little com- 
pany of adventurers like yourselves stood here : having 
freighted for the voyage of life they parted ; each in 
his own way drifting out into the great deep. From 
this spot anxious eyes have followed them, struggling 
far and wide upon its bosom. Some there are who 
have gone down, to rise no more. Others, again, are 
far away, a speck just seen upon the horizon's verge. 
A few remain in full view, yet nobly breasting the 
wave. After the lapse of a few years, a friendly 
signal has recalled one of their number to commune 
with you. He and his associates to-day, are but the 
type of you and your associates to-morrow. I come 
from them to bid you, God speed! To give you a 
welcome — a hearty welcome to the great struggle of 
life. 

The discursive remarks which I propose to submit 
to you, will be of a practical character ; with no pre- 
tensions to mere literary excellence or display. I 
shall not even affect to offer you the suggestions of 
a large experience, or the treasures of age. With life 



before me and hopes like yourselves in the future, I 
would rather meet you in fellowship ; friend counsel- 
ling with friend ; brother with brother. 

The world is before you. I shall not moralize by 
abusing it. It is no part of my purpose to impress 
you with the sentiment (more trite perhaps than true,) 
that it is all an illusion ; mere dust and ashes. My 
purpose is rather answered by reminding you of its 
brightness and beauty ; that it was made for us, and 
we for it, by a Being all beneficent and just. That it 
has many duties — many obligations ; but these duties 
performed, and these obligations answered, they have 
their reward. Even the pleasures of the world, though 
fleeting and mixed with much alloy, are not to be 
despised. They are the wild flowers which skirt the 
way-side of life. There are others again, of fragrance 
sweeter still, which bloom around the fire-side. And 
yet another, springing from the cultivation of the heart 
— the upward rearing of the affections, which buds 
and blossoms here, but blooms in everlasting beauty 
hereafter. 

But my concern is with the world. It is of that, I 
come to commune with you. If it have goods worth 
possessing, it is surely not amiss that we ask how they 
may best be compassed ? In the outset of your career, 
I wish to impress upon you, the necessitij of self-reliance 
as essential to success in life. I do not mean by this to 
inculcate that which is synonimous with mere indus- 
try. A life-time may be spent in gathering up the 



thoughts of other men. The granary may be full, and 
yet not a sheaf of your own be there. The ancient 
mariner who crept along the coast, guided by some 
mark on the land, or at best some star in the sky, was 
just as laborious as hCj w^ho, before the shape of the 
earth was settled, or the philosophy of Newton was 
known, reasoning from visible objects only, steered his 
ship boldly into the great deep, to reach Cathay, the 
further India, by a western passage. It is the self- 
reliance of intellect — of thought, which I would incul- 
cate as necessary to distinction in life. And without 
meaning to touch upon the province of others, whose 
better right it is, to enforce our humble dependence 
upon a Higher Power ; I \vould add that such depend- 
ence from the creature to the Creator, is daily and 
hourly due ; that its constant acknowledgment gives 
strength to our weakness ; upholds us in every effort 
for the better development of our powers. Let it not 
then be forgotten, that the ^e^reliance I inculcate 
in the course of these remarks, is in exclusion only 
of that reliance which feeble man places upon his 
fellow. 

And here permit me, in the first place, to refer to a 
principle of our nature antagonistical to the exercise 
and development of this faculty. I mean the vis 
inertice of the animal, as opposed to the intellect of the 
man. It is more pervading and controlHng in its ef- 
fects than the vanity of our nature will readily admit. 
The truth is, mankind in the mass, are indolent. How 



8 

else is it lliat they know so little, as a whole, of common 
philosophic truth? so little of the material universe 
around them ? They live by the fruits of the earth, 
yet scarcely ask how nature works in their produc- 
tion. The lightnings play, the winds come, and the 
rains descend ; they see the effect, but trouble them- 
selves not to understand the cause. The sky is lite- 
rally bespangled with shining bodies ; some fixed, 
some wandering, and some shooting madly from their 
sphere; they look in momentary surprise at a ''faUing 
star," then trouble themselves no further about the 
economy of God's glorious universe! While these 
things add nothing to sound sleep or easy digestion, 
the inei'tia of the animal is too much for the intellect 
of the man. However much we may talk of the 
incitements of honorable ambition, I very much fear 
they only control the few : that it is want — the wants 
of physical nature alone, which stimulate the many to 
exertion. These wants are wisely enlarged by a kind 
Providence, through the forms of conventional life — of 
organized society : and each additional want, whether 
actual or imaginary, gives rise to an increased mental 
exertion. Thus it happens that our wants, rather 
than our ambition, are the fulcra upon which the intel- 
lect of the mass of society is lifted up, and the points 
about which it revolves. But, let it be remembered 
that I speak of the many ; not of the few who pursue 
truth and knowledge for their own sakes. It is of the 
latter class only that the great in literature and science 



ever come. No man has distinguished himself highlj, 
without an object above merely bettering his condition 
in Hfe. But those of you who are farthest removed 
from the necessity of actual exertions to procure your 
personal comforts, are in the greatest danger of falling 
victims to this general inertia of our nature. And to 
such, more particularly, would I give the voice of 
warning. As a means of success or happiness in life, 
the most unstable of all, is a reliance upon the favours 
of fortune. 

It sometimes happens that we are slow to appreciate 
the value of elementary study. That we distrust the 
practical utility of the learning of the schools ; and 
where this is so, although the voice of instruction, 
like " the rains of heaven may descend upon the just 
and the unjust," its fertilizing principle sinks deep 
only in the one, while it runs off unfelt from the other. 
From those more especially whose collegiate life ends 
with the morrow, the last apology for neglect (if any 
guch there hath been) is about to pass away. They 
can no more ask themselves, of what avail is all this ? 
What boots it that we become learned in languages ; 
wise in cones, spheres, squares, and cubes ? ^* Will it 
set a bone ? No. Or an arm ? No. Or take away the 
grief of a wound? No — therefore I'll none of it.'* A 
different scene now opens. Your next step is prepa- 
ration — immediate preparation, for active life. You 
will soon be transplanted from beneath the parent 
stem : you will have an individuality, and must stand 



10 

or fall as you shall bear yourselves in the coming 
struggle. Are there any who even yet hesitate ? who 
cast about for further delay — further indulgence? 
Then indeed their case is almost hopeless. They 
enter upon the serious duties of life with a species of 
'' malice aforethought." I will not suppose it. I am 
willing to believe that all are ready. Now it is, 
that your self-reliance is first tried in the serious 
action of life. Now it is, that you would make a 
gainful barter by exchanging a goodly portion of 
all the genius and talent you possess, for a part only 
of the unshaken confidence — the strong self-reliance 
of men immeasurably your inferiors in acquirement. 
Look abroad; animate creation has its lesson. The 
beasts of the field seek safety and protection in their 
own instincts and strength. The fowls of the air poise 
themselves aloft, each by the steadiness of its own 
wing. The worm of the dust in its slimy track, knows 
no guide save its own feeble instincts. The earth, 
the air, the sea, ''and all that in them is," have 
stamped upon their physical condition a law for their 
development, that each take care of itself And man, 
the noblest of them all ; the only created thing which 
to the instincts of nature, hath added the lights of rea- 
son ; who " perisheth not as the beasts perish," he, too, 
for the development of his intellectual nature, is sub- 
ject to the same general law, that each rely upon 
himself. 

The becoming diffidence of youth will naturally in- 



11 

duce a distrust of your own powers. This very distrust 
is one of the indicia of merit. But beware of that 
shrinking timidity which prevents a trial. Thousands 
shipwreck themselves here. While they stand irreso- 
lute, the tide of time is ebbing fast. Wait not for the 
streagth of coming years. Experience asks no delay. 
Now, every day and hour, is the time for effort. The 
intellect of age is surest ; but strange as it may seem, 
some of the grandest reaches of human thought have 
been the efforts of youth. Sir Isaac Newton has per- 
haps enlarged the sphere of human knowledge beyond 
all others. Fancy paints him a sage, as venerable for 
years as for wisdom. It is all a fancy sketch. His 
grandest discoveries were the efforts of his youth ; he 
did little in scientific discovery after his meridian. 
The ground work of the Principia was laid before he 
was twenty -five, and the attraction of gravitation, as 
applied to heavenly bodies, was discovered before he 
was twenty-three. And it was the verification of 
this discovery a few years after, which opened the 
universe of God, to the eyes of his creatures ! The 
measurement of time by the oscillation of the pen- 
dulum was the discovery of Gallileo, before he had 
attained his twentieth year And although not ma- 
turing till late in life, we find him at the age of twen- 
ty-four in the mathematical chair of Pisa. The self- 
reliance of his youth, strengthened with increasing 
years, and when at the age of seventy, h^ was a second 
time compelled before the Inquisition, on bended 



12 

knees, and with his right hand upon the evangelists, 
to abjure the system of Copernicus — the doctrine of 
the sun's immobiUtj and the earth's motion — ^he is 
said to have stamped his foot upon the earth, as the 
abjuration closed, and added in an under tone, " it 
moves neverthekssy Nearer to our own day, and in 
another department of science, I might illustrate the 
power of youthful mind by the name of Sir Humphrey 
Davy. He was almost a boy-philosopher, in all things 
but attainments. In times ancient and modern, in all 
the varied fields where mind exerts itself, instances may 
be multiplied without number. It would seem trite 
to remind you that Alexander the Great, died in his 
thirty-third year ; and his famed lament, so often used 
to point a moral, tells what he had done. There is 
another of our own era, who conquered and destroyed 
more than Alexander ever knew. Yet it was in all 
the freshness of youth, that he stood at the foot of the 
Alps, and pointed his ill-fed, ill-clad followers to their 
frozen summit. There is a moral sublimity, in the 
unwavering confidence — the stern self-reliance of this 
ma?iy and his emphatic order. On ! Over mountains 
covered with everlasting snows : amidst avalanches 
and glaciers; through the wild gorges between the 
Alps and the Appenines, self-sustained and self-relying 
he led his followers on. And yet, do not suppose I 
hold him up as a model for the imitation of youth. God 
in his mercy forbid ! But it is not in the field alone, but 
the cabinet, that our own era furnishes illustrations in 



13 

point. Who among the statesmen of the old world has 
left a brighter name than William Pitt ? Who in the 
new, than Alexander Hamilton ? Every department 
of literature is rife with illustrations. Addison had 
distinguished himself for correctness of style and 
elegance of diction at the early age of twenty-one. 
Pope's incomparable essay upon criticism was the 
production of a youth scarce twenty. And there is 
yet another of our own day, a child of song — beautiful 
and bright, but wild and irregular; marked with 
many of the virtues, but stained, alas ! with all the vices 
of youth. Near Newstead Abbey, a marble tablet 
marks his resting place ; inscribed '* The author of 
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." Of all his literary 
laurels, this single chaplet decks his tomb. And this 
was gathered at the early age of twenty-two. This 
example is m.j last ; and while it serves to illustrate 
the power of youthful intellect, it has a voice of warn- 
ing not to be forgotten. Genius without virtue, is but 
a lamp in a sepulchre — its light is there, but it reveals 
nothing save the corruption which festers around it. 

But while I would thus encourage you by the ex- 
ample of others to test your capacities to the utmost, 
do not let me be misunderstood. I do not urge you 
into a headlong impetuosity — a rush upon the duties 
of life without preparation — a blind reliance upon your 
own powers, in despite of the counsels of your elders. 
All experience confirms the truth of the sentiment, 



14 

" temeritas est videlicet iioreiitis oetatis, jrudentia se- 
nescentis." Nor do I suppose t^ .at all who hear me 
are to shine as stars of the first r •.?•;•. itiide. We can- 
not all be destined tv. an immrtali' :f ft ije. But 
each of you may become respectable i . the several 
departments of huMan indu«:try. T' Is is a target 
within "point blank" distance ; aU mr.y iCcch it, and 
many I trust will reach a ])ci: .t fr.r beyor.d it. Lite- 
rature, and science • the healing r.rt ; t e '^.^^r^t; the 
bar, and the council cliamber are all open. But in 
each and all, at every step you i i gc re' ei.iber that 
self-reliance is essential to success. 

In science or literature, to make a nai e v/^ich will 
live beyond the hour, a man must do someiJ^ing or 
say something, w-^rth beir-ig done or said, and not 
better said or done bef .re. He must add something 
to the knowledge or happiness of his s\ ecies. And 
without the habit of self-reliance, even "I'terary men 
attempt nothing serious. They are elegant trifiers 
only. They >j* /j. the surface of hui -^n knowledge 
as certain birds skim the face of the deep, just i:.uch- 
ing a pinion to the water in sport, then sparkling go 
away into ether. But there is another of a higher 
order, which self-sustained, poises itself aloft, with eye 
fixed, then pitches from its height dowm, down to the 
very depths beneath; then upward soars, higher, 
higher still, with its treasure in its beak. 

Our day is strikingly prolific of the former class of 



15 

literary men, against whose writings it is necessary to 
guard your taste. The press is literally tepid, (I had 
almost said fetid,) with their ephemeral productions. 
Whether a depraved taste has generated this abun- 
dance, or the abundance has generated the taste, may 
be a question. But that they both unhappily exist, 
and now act and re-act upon each other is -undoubted. 
There was a time y/hen every gentleman felt himself 
bound to keep up with the ''polite literature'' of his 
day. This phrase, if it ever had a meaning, can 
scarcely be said to have one now. With some little 
exception, our ''polite literature" is seen at our print- 
shops, with covers ornamented with wood-cuts, and 
contents with curious illustrations to match ! — A fa- 
vourite mode in the day of infant schools to fix the 
attention of children. The world has abandoned the 
schools, but preserved the " modus operandi" for the 
benefit of the grown up generation. A happy thought, 
too, for a generation which rejoices in such a lite- 
rati ! This kind of trashy production is in every 
sense injurious. It has not, like the fictions of Scott, 
a chaste style, admirably descriptive of scenery and 
manners — a point in morals and basis in fact, to re- 
commend it. No, nothing of the kind. Its effect 
is evil — unmitigated evil. And not the least is, 
that the ephemeral reputation it gives the author, 
tempts others into the same field. I know not how 
may be the facts, but among this flock of educated 



16 

youth, who have grown up with this kind of literature, 
I would venture a random shot, that some at least have 
been tempted. I only hope they remembered the ob- 
jurgation, *' Get behind me, Satan" ! Carlyle, in his 
peculiar quaint but striking manner illustrates the 
facility of propagation, and evil consequences of this 
kind of writing. "No mortal (says he) has a right 
to wag his tongue, much less to wag his pen, without 
saying something ; he knows not what mischief he 
does past compunction, — scattering words without 
meaning — to afflict the whole world yet before they 
cease ! For thistle-down flies abroad on all winds, 
and airs of wind. Idle thistles, idle dandelions, and 
other idle productions of nature, or the human mind, 
propagate themselves in that way; like to cover the face 
of the earth, did not man's indignant providence, with 
reap-hook, with rake, with autumnal steel and tinder 
intervene. It is frightful to think how every idle 
volume flies abroad, like an idle globular downbeard, 
embryo of new millions." The authors of such pro- 
ductions never leave a lasting reputation behind them. 
They do nothing worth doing, and say nothing worth 
saying, which have not been both better said and better 
done before. A yankee machinist — the inventor of a 
spinning jenny, or a cotton gin, is worth more to his 
species than their whole generation. Of the effect of 
such writings, "baud inexpertus loquor." They 
vitiate the taste, give false notions of life, consume 



17 

time, and dissipate the mind. But pardon this di- 
gression : should I only add that a proper reliance, on 
your own judgment, will lead you to condemn this 
spurious literature, I would get back to my text in no 
unusual way, and without perhaps much observation. 
But the majority of those who hear me are destined 
to the learned professions : and here again self- 
reliance is essential to success — without it, you will 
scarcely " write your names upon the sand." Nay, 
without it, you will scarcely become safe practitioners 
in the several departments of professional life. In 
medical science, for instance, (the most uncertain of 
all,) what possible confidence can be reposed in him, 
who is without confidence in himself? who is forever 
jostled in his course by the conflicting opinions of 
others. Such of you as embark in this profession 
should remember the history of the science. Let it 
not be forgotten that from the days of ^Esculapius to 
Hippocrates, and thence to the present, there have been 
a successive generation and explosion of its theories, 
that what has been the received doctrine of one age, has 
been the discarded doctrine of another. That the course 
of change and improvements in the science have been 
so rapid, that the practice of every generation in im- 
portant particulars has been and yet is settled by its 
own writers. In theology they have '' the fathers," 
and so in law ; but in medicine its fathers are obsolete 

but in name — the great desideratum is a knowledge 

3 



18 

of the last discovery or improvement. This necessarily 
results from the uncertainty of the science. The very 
object upon which it operates is all a mystery. Its 
use and propreties are to restore health — to prolong 
life ; but life itself is a mystery. The profession are 
ignorant of the nature of the very object on which all 
its energies act. Health ! in what does it consist ? 
In how many thousand unknown ways may it be dis- 
turbed? Life! whatand whereis it? In the stomach — 
the blood — the brain — the heart, or elsewhere ? The 
profession know from experience that a pill or plaster 
will produce some ascertained effect upon the system, 
but in how many other unknown ways may it affect 
that mysterious principle, life ? The immense amount 
of quackery and practice among its more ignorant pro- 
fessors ; the credulities of the world as to specifics ; the 
constant generation and explosion of medical theories 
— all originate in the same cause, the intrinsic uncer- 
tainty of the science. I would not have you for these 
reasons disregard all that its writers teach ; far from 
it. But I would have you receive their teachings in 
the cautious investigating spirit of one who feels that 
he is in the regions of uncertainty, and not with the 
blind unthinking faith of a Hindoo devotee. At least 
analyse and test them, before you trust them. 

To such of you as may become country practitioners, 
this principle of self-reliance is of all things necessary. 
You will be alone, with local and peculiar causes of 



19 

disease all around yon. The soggy earth, the mias- 
matic air, the green pool, and a thousand other causes 
unmarked by a careless eye, will furnish the unseen 
agents of disease and death around you. You must 
accustom yourselves to note every fact, the smallest; 
to become closely familiar with the topography of 
your respective neighborhoods. In short to be a safe 
practitioner under such circumstances, you must be- 
come an observant, thinking, self-relying man. 

How often, alas, is it, that disregarding their duty 
in this behalf, they seek the extension of their practice 
by other and less creditable means ? Whatever may be 
your position, if you claim to be members of a liberal 
profession, let me hope you will do something more 
than store your memories with a few receipts and 
specifics. No occupation^ in life can be more useful 
and honorable when properly pursued ; none more 
narrow and contracted when prosecuted in the spirit of 
him who goes about to physic society, at so many 
grains for a fever and so much blood for a pain. 

Others of you, again, are destined to the profession 
of Divinity. It would ill become me to assume the 
place of monitor to them. Although the habit of self- 
reliance is to a certain extent essential to all, they will 
need less perhaps to insure their usefulness than the 
members of any other profession. They have an ad- 
vantage over all other practitioners. The text-books 
of every other science partake of the errors and imper- 
fections of their origin. Theirs has none. The words 



20 

of revelation are before them, '' a light to their feet 
and a lamp to their paths." They may foolishly tax 
their powers beyond their strength, and thus befog 
themselves in mysteries ; but that is not required of 
them. It is not permitted that they '' rend the veil," 
and vidth human eyes look in upon the '' holy of ho- 
lies." Faith is an essential of their creed, and the 
faith of the humble, which covers all, is perhaps most 
consoling. But to be truly useful, the leaders of the 
flock should have something more. The words of 
inspired truth have certainty in essentials ; but there 
are doubts and mysteries about its outskirts. And 
here, to the shame of Christendom, have dissension, 
schism and strife made their home. Here the fight 
goes on with a noise and fury that distract the follow- 
er; that sometimes leave, I fear, the enemy to seize 
upon the citadel, while the guard is battling foi the 
outer wall. But of this I presume not to judge. I 
mean only to say that they who aspire to be leaders 
under such circumstances, must prepare themselves in 
mental discipline for the existing state of things. The 
mysteries which envelop the outskirts of theology, like 
the uncertainties in medical science, favour all kinds 
of imposition. Thus the empirics in each have their 
new and infallible specifics — the one for health, the 
other for salvation. And even in this day of Christian 
light we almost blush for human nature, when we see 
after what kind of teachers, and what kind of absurdi- 
ties it will sometimes follow. But even this, is but 



21 

another evidence of the vahie of self-reliance as a means 
of success in life. It shows how prone is man to rest 
his own weakness upon the professed strength of ano- 
ther. These false teachers — the schismatic and the 
scoffer, make common cause ; and against their joint 
attacks, the young divine needs something more than 
a memory stored with the arguments of Davies, Blair, 
Edwards and Tillotson. He must have resources of 
his own ; power of thought within himself. But I 
feel my incompetence to this part of my subject. I 
should not have alluded to it at all, save for its con- 
nexion, and I leave it, commending you to the coun- 
sels of those who are better able, and have better right 
to guide you on your way. 

Another and perhaps not a small portion of you are 
destined to the Bar. Its inducements, direct and in- 
direct, draw to it a large part of the aspiring youth of 
our country. 

The law is a science enlarged in its compass, and 
noble in its objects. It binds the elements of society 
together, keeping all its discordant materials in place. 
It has no mysteries — ^no uncertainties under which 
imposition can protect itself. In litigation there is no 
quackery, no infallible specific. Crowds never follow 
ignorant pretenders to legal knowledge into courts of 
justice, to vindicate their civil rights. Notwithstanding 
that time out of mind, its "glorious uncertainty" has 
furnished a theme for the wit of the world ; there is 
perhaps no science, apart from mathematical truth, 



22 

more fixed and certain in its principles. I speak not 
of local laws — of mere statutory provisions, but of that 
great system of principles which constitute the com- 
mon law, and in which the science consists. There 
is no other science in which greater sacrifices to cer- 
tainty have been made — none other has so perfect a 
record dating back so far. For the space of 400 years 
prior to 1730, to avoid uncertainty, change or miscon- 
struction, it eschew^ed all living languages — its pro- 
ceedings, opinions and judgments w^ere entered in 
Latin. And since that time, it has a vernacular of its 
own ; a stiff and simple English, in which every thing 
is made to yield to perspicuity. Its principles, I 
repeat, have a certainty next to mathematical truth. 
They are something, be it remembered, apart from the 
facts in litigation. They do not stand godfather to 
all the uncertainties of the witness-stand and the jury- 
box ; if this were so, the science would scarce deserve 
a name. They are a body of principles deduced from 
reason and experience — based upon the soundest 
morals and adapted to the varied wants of organised 
society. Their principles are fixed and constitute the 
science. It is to the study of these principles you 
will assiduously devote yourselves. Without labour in 
mastering, and thought in applying them, you can 
do nothing ; literally nothing. Genius alone, will be 
of as little avail as powder without lead : though full 
of it, you are yet but a blank cartridge; you may 
make a great flash and noise, but will send nothing to 
the mark. 



23 

The profession in this country have a field for 
thouo^ht and action more enlaro^ed even than is found 
in the jurisprudence of the old world. We have their 
principles to apply, and we have our own, resulting 
from new systems and altered circumstances. They 
have nothing akin to the complex workings of our 
general and state governments. Here is a new field 
for intellectual labour. Much has been already done. 
The mind of Marshall entered into it, as the plough- 
share to the deep unbroken prairie. Unlike the minds 
of other men, his went straight on from point to point, 
clearing all before it, yet scarcely citing book or case 
to uphold it. Thus page follows page of pure original 
thought. But although much has been done, much 
yet remains to be accomplished; the mine is so rich 
and deep that no extent of shaftings can exhaust its 
store. Here is a field for usefulness and distinction 
peculiar to the American lawyer and statesman. But 
its very freshness and novelty require the exertion of 
original power of thought, and that mind which can- 
not travel save in the worn rut of adjudged cases, is 
unfit for the work. Self-reliance of intellect, is of all 
things essential to the permanent distinction of an 
American lawyer. 

And here, I am sure I do not ask in behalf 
of this profession too much of your charity, when 
I beg that it may be judged by its fruit — not 
by its vilest excrescence. There is no occupation 
in life which has greater variety of followers. Place 



24 

yourselves where you may — high or low — you are 
sure to find your peers. In its walks are the 
loftiest of our species — '' the meanest of our kind.'* 
The profession, if pursued in a liberal spirit, with a 
due regard to social duty and moral obligation, en- 
larges while it elevates the mind. It trains its 
follower as a gentleman and a good citizen. But un- 
happily it is not always thus pursued. Some few 
there are who follow it in the persecuting spirit of a 
litigious temper — with low cunning, chicanery and ca- 
vil as their only merit, dcnd fees their only object. Where 
this is so, there is not in nature a thing so troublesome, 
pernicious and vile as this. Of such, it may almost be 
said, " None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for 
truth ; they trust in vanity and speak lies ; they con- 
ceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch 
cockatrice' eggs and weave the spider's web : he that 
eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed 
breaketh out into a viper." And yet it is this thing 
which affects the views of many honest but narrow- 
minded men in reference to the character of the en- 
tire profession. I need not say to you beware of the 
thing itself, but you will pardon me for saying, beware 
of everything which even approximates towards it. 

Before leaving this subject I would wish to impress 
you with the value of literary attainment as an aid to 
legal acquirement. I hope to see in a coming gene- 
ration more of just pride in regard thereto, than exists 
in this. It is the pride of an English barrister that he 



25 

is among the educated men of his country. Without 
reference to the dead, there are many distinguished 
instances among the living. Brougham, Denman, Tal- 
fourd and others, are not only eminent as lawyers, but 
as men of letters. It is the sin of the American bar 
that they overlook the advantages of literary attain- 
ment. They are as a whole a laborious, pains-taking, 
but prosaical class of men, with little of the elegance of 
life about them. This is a great mistake, resulting 
from a narrow view of professional duty. Literary 
knowledge may not aid much in investigating an 
abstract legal principle, but it is a source of never- 
failing power in enforcing that principle upon court 
and jury. The practising lawyer should at all events 
keep himself thoroughly familiar with English litera- 
ture. Nothing gives such unlimited command of 
language as this. In this knowledge, it is said, lay 
the wonderful power of Erskine. His classical attain- 
ments were of the most scanty kind, but his knowledge 
of English literature was beyond all his cotempo- 
raries. Lord Brougham says, that with Shakspeare 
he was more familiar than almost any man of his age, 
and Milton he nearly had by heart. Hence came 
his aptitude of expression ; hence that surpassing 
beauty of diction which so distinguished all his foren- 
sic efforts. 

But independent of its aid in the business of life, it 
serves a better purpose. We need something more 
refining in its tendencies than the severe studies and 



26 

sharp collisions of professional life. The husband- 
man gathers his crop from the ungainly field, but he 
embellishes his home with garden flowers. Let us 
borrow his wisdom. It is there, within our homes, 
that all our substantial pleasures centre. That little 
circle we can neither cheer nor profit by any legal 
detail. The softening influences of literary taste 
should shed its fragrance there. I need not speak of 
its humanising effect upon our own feelings, nor of 
the deep sources of enjoyment it supplies in all adverse 
circumstances. The loneliness of exile and the soli- 
tude of the dungeon have been cheered by literary 
labour. There, the mind shut out from external 
objects, has turned itself inward, and in the regions of 
memory and reflection travelled months and years out 
of sight, but on its own magnificent domain. Ovid, 
Boethius, Tasso, Raleigh, and many more are beaute- 
ous illustrations of the sources of enjoyment an educa- 
ted mind has in its own powers. But this is a " thrice 
told tale." 

The transition from the bar to public life, is a thing 
almost of course. The door is open, inviting entrance. 
But do not, I beg of you, hasten your steps. Alas ! 
you say, how ready with our precept, how sparing of 
our example ! But be this as it may, experience jus- 
tifies the assertion that the change is rarely for the 
better ; while all who have once passed the threshold 
will bear witness how hard it is to retrace their steps. 
Before you embark in public life, you will, if just to 



27 

yourselves, prepare yourselves by deep and careful 
study of the history, constitution and laws of your 
country. This will avail you more a thousand fold, 
than all that petty knowledge of political detail picked 
up in magazines and newspapers ; and which is cur- 
rent, as a kind of circulating medium among street 
politicians. A species of knowledge, which like small 
change, answers only the small purposes of life. Let 
yonr views and objects be more liberal and enlightened. 
You do not live in a day of revolution — ^you may not 
be called upon to stake ''life, fortune and sacred 
honour;" but you will be called upon to sustain 
measures calculated to develop the resources of your 
country, and advance the happiness of your species. 
These are the objects of the statesmen of every age. 
In effecting such objects let me hope you will move 
in a region above the influence of mere popular 
passion ; that you will never pander for present pur- 
poses to a vicious sentiment, but seek the ultimate 
good of all in sincerity of heart. If public sentiment 
be right, follow it ; if wrong, rectify it ; but never 
become its slave. '' Vox populi, vox Dei," in its com- 
mon acceptation, aside from its profanity, is the senti- 
ment of a demagogue. A class of men who bear the 
same relation to the public, that the false friend of 
private life bears to the companion of his social hours. 
They sat for their picture in the days of Cicero ; and 
after eighteen hundred years the colouring is as true 



28 

to nature, as though it were the work of yesterday. 
**Quid potest esse tam flexibile, tam devium, quam 
animus ejus, qui ad alterius non modo sensum ac volun- 
tatem, sed etiam vultum atque nutum convertitur." 

" Negat quis ? Nego. Ait ? aio." 

Such men have no intrinsic value ; no reliance on 
themselves. They stand among their fellows like 
senseless mirrors in a crowd. The world that looks 
upon them, sees nothing there save the reflections of 
its own shiftino^ feelinors. Beware of this. Have 
principles of your own ; a sense of right and wrong 
for your guidance. Whatever may be the present 
current of public opinion, it will eventually hold you 
answerable for your own acts. History never extenu- 
ates political profligacy by pleading the oscillations of 
popular feeling. Your reputation in after times will 
stand alone, fragrant with the healthful perfume, or 
the corrupting stench of its own odour. 

I do not mean that you shall manufacture for your- 
selves a new set of political opinions ; that you shall 
stand aloof from party organization, as persons spe- 
cially conscientious or pre-eminently honest. There 
is a line beyond which virtue becomes prudery, and 
there I would have you stop. If the party to which 
you attach yourselves, be wrong in things essential, 
go not a step in their company; but in non-essentials, 
make them as they should be, if you can ; but, failing 
in that, adhere to them still. In such connexion you 



29 

will have a power for good in the confidence of your 
friends — a species of leverage, which will enable you 
to lift up to a higher level a large body of your coun- 
trymen. But while you stand alone, or pass like a 
pendulum from one side to the other, yoa are used by 
all, and trusted by none. 

But be cautious of the position you occupy in the 
ranks ; at least have a standing of your own. A love 
for the proximit}'- of the great is a common error. 
Thousands would rather be conspicuous from such 
connexion, than occupy a less marked position in their 
own right. Beware of this ; let your position, how- 
ever humble, be a position of your own, not dependent 
for support upon the name or standing of another. 
The analogies between the natural and moral world 
are of the most striking character. The same laws 
would appear to govern both. No plant in nature at- 
tains maturity in the shade of a greater one. Each 
requires for its development the sunshine and the 
storm ; and so it is in the moral world. In every po- 
sition in life, it is essential to the development of the 
intellectual man that he stand by himself; that he 
rely mainly upon his own powders. 

But the question may occur to some, how is this 
faculty acquired ? What shall we do ? The answer 
is but a repetition of the sentiment, rely upon your- 
selves. No critical dissertation can enlighten you 
more. As well might you ask the same question in 
reference to the physical man : and yet you know that 



30 

every member of the body is developed only by its 
own exercise. The ability to walk, to run, to ride, is 
acquired only by the act itself; and so it is of reliance 
upon our own mental powers. The exertion of those 
powers is fortunately not a wasting but a gathering of 
strength. Happiness in life depends chiefly upon the 
right cultivation of the affections. These are some- 
times dried up for want of use, but are never exhausted 
by an over-draft. Success in life, depends upon self- 
exertion — a reliance upon one's own powers. The 
mind sometimes becomes torpid from want of exercise, 
but is rarely crushed by its burthens. You may pile 
mountain on mountain ''upon the arches of its 
strength ;" you may rest the whole moral universe 
upon its bosom, and yet it wOl heave as freely as the 
waves of the sea, when countless millions of atmo- 
spheric weight are pressing them down. It is this 
very principle of universal pressure which holds the 
natural world in its place. And the same pressure 
upon man, of moral duties and mental burthens com- 
pacts, while it gives stability to the qualities both of 
his head and his heart. Mindful of this, shrink from 
nothing under which you have strength to stagger. 
What h weight to-day becomes thistle-down to- 
morrow. 

The stru2:2:le is now before vou. Gird vourselves 
with principles of moral rectitude ; summon up all 
your energies ; and next to Him whose hand sustains 
lis all, rely for success, each upon his own powers. 



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